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This week: Edited by: Colin Back on the Ghost Roads  
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This newsletter is for everyone who enjoys the magic and mystery of a good Fantasy, be it Tolkien, Jordan, Rowling, or a host of others. I will also be attempting to give some time to other types of fantasy, as written by the likes of Asimov, Wilson, Clarke and a galaxy of talent.
I hope to present some information that will be useful to other fantasy authors on site, and entertaining to all our subscribers.
So, let the wonder and glory of all that is fantasy engulf you.
The Fantasy Editors:
Colin Back on the Ghost Roads
billwilcox
John~Ashen 
rose_shadow
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The Role of the Church
Many fantasy tales include gods and other such powers in their worlds. These beings are often active participants in the fate of the worlds they oversee. Sometimes the gods themselves are characters in the story, others they are watchers from afar, nudging events in the directions they wish them to go. One thing that is fairly constant is that the people tend to be aware of them, and often worship them, much like in our world. As such it is only natural that people would develop rituals and organizations dedicated to these beings. For simplicity I refer to the organizations as Churches and the rules and rituals as Religions. Even without physical appearances by a god, churches of the god or gods in your story can play a vital and active role. I will illustrate many ways that a church can be used, which can apply equally well to an invented fantasy world as to a modern fantasy with the same established churches we know in our lives.
1) Antagonist-this one is fairly self explanatory. The church of an evil god whose interests go against our heroes goals will be opposed to them. On the other hand, it is equally possible that churches of non-evil gods will also oppose the heroes. Perhaps the heroes seek to destroy an artifact that another church seeks to use against an evil they are fighting. Contradictory goals can drive two generally heroic groups to be at odds with each other. This can lead to some interesting subplots right up to the climax of the story. Also remember that for an evil antagonistic church, the villains can use it for the same sorts of things the heroes can use their own churches as outlined below.
2) Repositories of ancient knowledge-churches normally have records of things going back to the beginning of time, and if you ask them nicely or are on a quest they approve of may let the heroes look at them. A lot of valuable information can be found this way. In a modern context, forbidden texts, ancient scrolls and other things that might provide clues to what is going on could well be in the hands of a well known church, and the heroes may have to negotiate with them to get it.
3) Sources of local information-in addition to ministering to the spiritual needs of a community, churches are often social centers. As such the leaders of a local church, the parish priest of village minister or whatever, may know far more about the comings and going of his locale than most anyone else. This could be an interesting twist on the local tavern keep, as a priest is liable to come upon information the tavern keeper might not be aware of, such as the true causes of mysterious deaths or other such things.
4) Sources of higher learning-in older times, churches were the sole places you could get an advanced education. In many fantasy stories churches play a similar role. If you are in need of someone who can read a dead, ancient language, the local parish might just know who to ask to find you one. In modern settings, many churches sponsor their own colleges and universities so that relationship can exist in those settings as well.
5) Patrons-if a particular goal is in line with a church's philosophy, then it might help the heroes out in many ways. They might provide equipment and advice to the heroes, give them a holy writ allowing them access to church archives around the nation, or offer any number of other services. The church may well be the one who initiates the whole story, either openly or behind the scenes.
6) Practitioners of specialized skills-many churches do charitable work for their communities. This can result in a church having access to a wide variety of skilled tradesmen for their projects. The obvious one is healers. Churches often ran hospitals. Carpenters, shipwrights and so on might also be in the employ of some churches, particularly those with a lot of missionary workers. Any church that sponsors knights will have some blacksmiths available. Depending on the nature of the god in question the possibilities here are pretty much endless.
7) Magic-churches often specialize in types of magic not available to regular wizards. Perhaps the church is the only on in a nation permitted to practice magic. Maybe divinations are only granted to followers of a certain god. Miracles, sort of a subset of magic in fantasy, are far more likely to come from a church member or official than an average citizen of any nation. All these things can be of use to a group of heroes.
8) Companionship-if a quest is of strong enough interest to a given church they may supply manpower. A priest accompanying a group can add an air of legitimacy to such a task. A small band of knights can provide protection for otherwise less combative heroes. A church scribe may be the only one who can translate the scrolls that show how the evil may be stopped. An interesting and rarely used alternative is also out there. Churches typically run orphanages and homes for wayward youth. If the heroes need someone with, shall we say less savory skills, they might be able to find them in such places. Sure the church is trying to reform them, but using such abilities in a good cause might be just what these youth need, or so the priest might reason. Again there are nearly endless possibilities in this area.]
Notice, the presence or manifestation of a god was not part of any of these roles, except possibly #7. Using a church for something other than a place where a god can appear and speak can bring some new life to a fantasy story and more firmly set it in a vibrant living world. Give it a try, you might find you like it. |
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From: rose_shadow
Great newsletter, Colin. Another good reason to make limits to your magic is that if wizards were all-powerful, than the story wouldn't be nearly as interesting. Give them weaknesss and conflict, and you're bound to have a reader hooked.
Absolutely, all powerful magic is boring. There's no tension if a wizard can just make everything right again. That said, if the rules of the story don't require it, there's no reason why magic can't be part of people's every day lives. Just make sure you consider the ramifications of every day magic, and it can work very well without being something a band of heroes would find particularly essential to their quest.
From: Wanadoo
Come on!!! Give us Sci Fi Fantasy guys some help. A setting on a world is one thing but imagine trying to set a fantasy universe in, well, the actual universe!! Not only do we have the normal creative obstacles to face but, a writer like myself, has the scientific research to do in order to substantiate his universe and give it credibility.
Please, please, please can we have some help! Beers will be a plenty if I get some!
Sadly, of you choose to write SF as opposed to modern Fantasy, you are obliged to do a lot of research to make it work. The science must be sound for the science fiction to work well. On the other hand, much of what applies to fantasy can also apply to SF. For example, everything I said about low magic can equally apply to day to day technology of an SF setting, with some modification. If you're SF will take place on a world other than Earth then the world building articles will help you. One recent newsletter had details about real world terrain, in that case it was dessert. If you are planning to write a story set in a dessert on any world that information would be very valuable. Fantasy and Science Fiction are related, and what works for one can often work for the other, so don't throw out an article just because it seems to relate more to fantasy, please. You would be tossing aside a lot of valuable resources if you do.
From: SilverGryphon
This was great!! I have been working on my own fantasy book and it has its share of lesser magic makers. This helped to open my eyes to what my little minions of magic could do to further my story. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!!
Glad you found it useful. That's why I write them.
From: River Song
Thanks for the great article on lesser wizards. It is true we often find ourselves giving vast powers to our wizards and leaving out lesser ones. I'm sure were magic real, there would be more and less talented people in the art as there are more and less talented athletes or musicians etc. Great point to think about. Thanks.
Yes, magic is usually a talent much like art or music (in some stories it is entwined with those talents) and so it should often not exist as a world shattering force or not at all. Glad you liked the article.
From billwilcox
 I loved it Colin. Thanks for giving the little guy - the lesser wizard - some overdue respect.
Glad you enjoyed it. I hope Schmendrik will be proud.
From scribbler
every weekt his news letter talks about one of my pet peeves, how do you do it? This week it was that NOT ALL WIZARDS MUST BE POWERFUL. Why is magic always the answer to everything, the ARE other ways to solve problems, and it's humbling, in a story to see that even the magic folk can't fix everything! Thanks again.
Didn't I tell you? I'm a Peeveturg, a mage specialized in determining people's pet peeves about stories and writing about them. Granted it's a lesser branch of magic, but useful for some purposes.
Seriously though, I suspect it's a simple fact that your pet peeves are probably more common than you might think. I write about these topics becasue they are things I would like to see fixed in fantasy stories. The fact that you have similar feelings just reinforces the point.
And yes, I agree, magic is not and should not be the only way to solve problems. On the other hand, if a wizard is powerful and always uses magic to solve problems, it makes sense that he or she might not be able to figure out how to solve problems without magic, which can make an interesting plot device sometimes.
Thanks for the feedback.
From: FreeFall
Thank you for the article on low power magic users and how to use them in a story. I simply love writing about magic, and magic-users. The tips will help, I'm sure.
Glad to help. That's what writing these articles is all about.
That wraps things up this week. Next time, a new topic. After all, it's still too early for summer reruns.  |
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Fantasy: March 01, 2006 Issue [#904]
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